Saturday, April 24, 2010

i kill you!

Recognize the lines? If you're an avid comedy fan, you'll recognize them from Jeff Dunham's stand-up comedy act with "Achmed the dead terrorist"

The first time I watched the act on youtube, it wasn't hard to guess that the puppet named Ahmed (Achmed) is supposed to be a Muslim. And how did I feel about this supposed puppet Muslim being portrayed as 'the dead terrorist'? I don't really know, I was too busy laughing. The comedy act was funny, like LOL kinda funny. I didn't take offense it, nor did any of the Muslims who my brothers and I shared the video with.

Muslims, if you are one, you know this very well through you local college's MSA skit, make fun of themselves all the time. And we see others making fun of us, alot actually. Some are taken in the LOL manner like above, others can cause us to cringe and become uncomfortable.

But some jokes, regardless of whether they're funny or how liberal a Muslim is, sits in an uncomfortable manner, at the very least.

As some of you know, facial depictions especially of all the Prophets and of God are not allowed in Islam. Period.

But only when a kind of depiction of the last Prophet, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) i.e. the Prophet of Islam, comes out that you may notice noise being made.

Clear point and case, South Park's creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, were given a warning by a group called Muslim Revolution, to be careful or they might end up well...dead. They wrote in their online post , " This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them."The crime? The Prophet was shown in one of their episodes buttt mindful of Islam's strict position on that, they kept him concealed in a bear suit or a U-Haul truck.

In comes Muslim Revolution's threat or umm... warning . Comedy Central decides better safe and happy. So on a new episode with the depiction of the Prophet they placed the word CENSORED to block the original concealment of the Prophet (the bear suit) and even censor any mention of his name and even some dialogues.

And the world is in Uproar!

Muslim Revolution faces the wrath of South Park's fans who hack their website and have it redirected to a picture that the fans know Muslim Rev's groupie will find offensive.

(FYI I would die from happiness if Jon Stewart sang a song just for me, just a nice one)

Islam haters find themselves refueled, rearmed, and set out to make their own noise on forums and through comments.

"Hey MUSLIMS, WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?"

Well if you really wanna ask it like that, the answer would be you. But besides that lemme answer some of you questions.

"Chrisitians and Jews are made fun of all the time. So why do you think you are the exception?!"

No we don't think we're the exception. Like I said earlier, there are more than plenty of jokes out and about on Muslims and Arabs.

And we're made fun of and mocked even when it's not a comedic setting (sigh...Hollywood).

But noise erupts when the Prophet is mocked. Here's what it is: Jesus, Moses, Ibrahim etc. (peace be upon them all) while there may be some discrepancies with our beliefs in them, we respect them, we love them, we honor them.

We would not, should not, and could not mock them. When we see shows mocking them (in America) it doesn't settle well with us, but not much is said. Generally America is a Christian country and this is what America's mainly Christian population chooses to allow. Yes I know, separation of Church and State. But God Bless America.

And here we come, where facial depictions aren't even allowed of our own Prophet. Descriptions of him are only through words.

Mocking that is done on Jesus (and I could be wrong here) may also have less of an effect because Christianity has religious pictures and depictions of him everywhere.

While we, don't dare. So not only do we see a depiction of him that we have clearly said NO to, but a mocking one. And you expect a Muslim to be okay with that?

Sorry. That's enough to get a Muslim pissed off.

Enough to get annoyed but would Not excuse a Muslim to take a life or react destructively . The latter half, some Muslims, who are further egged on, turn deaf, dumb and blind to.

"Um. No it really doesn't. Assuming what Muslim Revolution did was just a warning. It was still messed up. Even the time the Danish cartoons depicted the Prophet, some Muslims acted out violently from anger, keeping in mind there's more than 1.5 billion Muslims out of a 6.7 billion world population, there's a lot more of us that didn't act from that anger.

Some people, like me sit and wonder what would the Prophet had told us to do. Definitely not go and randomly burn buildings and cause chaos or destruction to retaliate against ignorance.

I've heard people say some pretty disgusting stuff to my face or indirectly to me about my beliefs or my Prophet and sure I've wanted to punch people really, really hard. But I don't. Because that's what my religion DID teach me.It's told me again, and again, and again, and sometimes even to my deaf ears not to act out in anger.

Did you know that extreme anger is even considered unlawful in Islam?

Oh and if I ever do slip, it's not because I've been taught violence through my religion."

So you're probably really pissed of with South Park too? You're probably applauding that radical website?

Uhh Actually no. I actually appreciated the creators attempts at, in their own funny way, trying to adhere to Islam's prohibition against depicting the Prophet. I'm not going to applaud them but I did appreciate it.

And notice that those other times when the depiction was made, it never made it to the media? Not that any of it makes it okay for anyone to publicly mock prominent figures of another's religion. (But we're not here to address that).But no, I don't applaud the website. Posting up a picture of a dead man and using that as a 'warning' is disgusting and wrong. And as Snake Charmer points out also, that pisses many Muslims out even more.

Anyways, those are my two cents in a 100 dollar bill. Comments, questions are welcome. And on a side note, I apologize for not giving better insight into the whole thing. I don't watch South Park and nor am I ever planning on it. So I have no idea what happened in the episodes in exact details. Nor am I an expert in any form.

Using another's words, it's an unfortunate situation and we can't enforce what is said about Islam but can voice our concerns. "In any case, in the end, it comes down to the problems associated with the creation of mass media in general, and things can & potentially will get much worse as a result of it"

17 comments:

I haven't watched South Park since I was probably 12 or 13 and I haven't seen the episode mentioned.

I have, however, been surprised by some of the comments made by people about it...IDK...we have to remeber that everyone's entitled to free speech- even if we don't agree with what they're saying...the sooner we all realize that, the better.

I really don't have any tangible thoughts on this that I can pin down - it's a controversial topic that doesn't really have a clear moral side.

I really appreciate you talking about this. I always enjoy reading your blog and getting a fresh perspective on the tricky issues that stem from mixing Islam, a non-dominant religion, with American society - who is taught, to some extent, to fear it.

I like this post a lot. It brings to the surface a lot of issues of morality. Honestly, as a Muslim I'll watch comedy clips like such and laugh like crazy. But then afterward I'll sit back and think was that really appropriate? Maybe the humor makes us at least more comfortable talking about these types of things. In terms of the South Park episode and the like ... I believe there's a huge imbalance in respect levels and glorification of religious icons. Prophet Jesus and Moses for instance are usually never disrespected. Why? Because most people believe in them and believe good of them. What knowledge do most people have of Prophet Muhammed? Almost zero aside from what our biased news tells us.

As Muslims our reaction shouldn't be of anger but of understanding. We have so many people who don't have the true understanding of the religion because we're not out there actively showing the truth that FOX news will never show.

The more people can laugh at themselves the more we will become accepting of differences, I think. Sometimes stereo types are true and sometimes they are just funny. I am not going to lie. I get a little uncomfortable with muslim terrorist jokes because I know all muslims are not terrorists. I makes me feel better that you girls can laugh about it.

Well,,, First of all I was a bit hesitant because it was to reply about the greatest man and greatest dogma which is unspeakable to me. Thanks CC for discussing such brilliant post.

Achmed! That talented guy Jeff Dunham misbehaved by funny and smart way which push us Muslims to laugh so hard in a way that block our minds to reach his target behind …

If you take a deep look at the puppet he played with, you will notice that it has a beard, long beard and it’s head is covered, which indicates that the character is a Muslim!

They just enjoy making fun of Muslims; they named us terrorists cuz of punch of ignorant and superficial people who commit suicide operations under certain political aims to deface Muslims and Islam reputation.

Those people insane allegations that set committing suicide will bring forward something great to our realm and Islam is totally not related to Islamic dogma.

In Quran there is a quote says if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole humanity: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the whole humanity. A human being soul is divine in Islam regardless of the religion that human belongs to, consequently committing suicide or killing people is something FORBIDDEN. And Islam set a retribution for any Muslim who homicide any innocent lives, So where on earth did they bring those lunatic rotten verdicts from!

We all witness on the opposite status which is the world political leaders encourage Muslims to abandon all resistance of the aggression and slaughter they and their ally Israel inflict on Muslims day after day.

Israel is the core of terror and crime they kill innocent lives cruelly every day; they made of Palestinians vagrants and refugees! There is no way to compare between us pure Muslims and those savage murders Israelis!

If they look deeply at the essence of our Islam they will realize that it is immortality dogma and it fits people every time since the antiquity to recent era evermore…

Those Jews verdicts allowed them to outrage by other religions, prophets and even to Allah. And we Muslims our vulnerability, negligence and our spare of real Islam made of us a global fiasco!Why on earth that puppet has a long beard not two plaits on both sides like Jews do!

Thanks again for sharing such brilliant topic sweetie ^_^All the bestRational

Wow, that is a very thoughtful response. I really appreciate this post.

Basically the only point of depicting him is to go "nah nahhnny nah nah, we are doing something naughty!" I'm all for freedom of speech etc, but I just don't find it impressive for someone to be controversial literally for the sake of being controversial and not to make any kind of broader point.

This was well worded... It is interesting to me all the faithfilled people who do not follow their own religion's teachings.

Last week I watched: "Lord Save Us from Your Followers" on Netflix (documentary by a Christian who showed the hate coming from a lot of Christians although they're not taught hate). He claimed that typically 9 out of 10 Christians just accept others for their views or oppinions, but it's than 1 that gets offended and uproars loud as hell that gives all Christians a bad name.

this was awesome. but I agree with you. We are part of society, and don't mind being joked about, but mocking the prophet (let alone all other prophets) doesn't sit well with muslims. However, why did many muslims react so violently about the danish cartoon? Because the general muslim public is generally repressed. This was in reaction to their repression and their governments encouraged this outburst targeted towards the 'other' rather than the real anti-freedom perpetrators, themselves. It became an Us vs. Them issue, and that is how it was propagated internationally. And well, there is no real 'us' for those repressed peoples.

i really love this post. i kind of want to share it with others if you don't mind. it was really great. p.s i have a shirt that says "SILENCE...I KEEEEL YOUUUU" with achmet the dead terrorists face lol, its great =) ---maraj---